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Turnaround for candidate

Ireland

DUBLIN. Ireland's most prominent gay rights campaigner has secured the nomination to stand for the Irish presidency after winning the support of Dublin city council. Senator David Norris, a Trinity College Dublin academic, will stand against six other candidates, including Martin McGuinness, the former IRA chief of staff turned Sinn Fein deputy first minister of Northern Ireland, and the former Eurovision song contest winner Dana Rosemary Scallon.

Securing the candidacy marks an astonishing turnaround in fortunes for Senator Norris, who looked out of the contest last month. He had pulled out after revelations he had written to Israeli authorities urging clemency for a former lover who was convicted of the statutory rape of a 15-year-old Palestinian boy.